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Hi
readers! So recently marks the end of all 21st birthday planning. As
some of you might know, I’m 21 this year. That means most of my friends are
celebrating their 21st as well. As I planned my 21st
birthday first (yes I’m the eldest among my friends), I have learned to plan
birthday parties better than ever. Especially after planning birthday after
birthday parties. Thank god I only have these few close friends to plan, or I
will be ultra-broke and busy.

I
planned Donovan’s 21st along with his ex-girlfriend, WP (yes, they
are still friends) recently, and I swear I was so glad that was the end. I’m so
done with planning 21st birthday parties. I don’t know about you,
but 21st birthday parties are quite boring IMO.

It
seems very fun and exciting to look forward to your 21st, but as
soon as all the planning kick in- you wish you are back to 12 and all you need
to do is to eat the birthday cake your parents bought you.

I’m
a super control freak with it comes to planning for parties, and I hate it when
people are inefficient or nonresponsive as fuck. And soon it will come to a
point where I’d no longer care about the party and let the rest fuck it up/
save it themselves.

If
you are going to celebrate a typical 21st birthday party, you can
follow the mini guide below. When I say ‘typical 21st birthday party’
I mean those staycation/ fancy hotel celebration. I know there are a few people
who prefer to hold their parties at chalets, but I personally prefer to have
some kind of class.

Decide the Date

Are
you going to hold it on the actual day, or postpone it to another week? If your
birthday falls on weekday, will people attend on the actual day?

Prepare the Guest
List

There
is not point booking a hotel or cake when you have no guests. If you are
planning a surprise, then you better steal the phone and grab the contact list quickly.
One thing I realized for surprise party is that the birthday boy/ girl may get
upset with the people invited. Remember to invite the correct people. This may
be tricky, especially for girls, as you may just invite one of her ‘fake’
friends to the party.

Order the Cake/
Cupcakes

Find
the design you prefer and quickly order it. One thing I realized about most personalized
birthday cake bakeries is that they refuse to take any order if you only request
to them 1 week or less. I began planning my birthday on the week of my party
itself, hence finding cake was quite tedious as well. Same for Donovan’s. It
seems that everyone was not free and it was hard to decide the date to hold the
party. By now the guests should already RSVP with you, but I know there are
many non-responsive people out there, and you are unsure if they are attending.
I would say do an estimation. If the number of guests exceeds, you can cut the
cake into smaller pieces. It is better than wasting food.

Order Food

Unless
you are ordering pizzas, which was what I did for Donovan’s party, then it’s
better to calculate how much food you are going to order. Again, it’s better
not to waste food. You can always order pizzas if too many guests turn up. Also,
check with the guests if there are certain food they are unable to take.

Decorations

Typical
21st birthday balloons and those name balloons? There are a few of
those out there, google it. How are you going to decorate the hotel room? How
about the table layout?

These
are a few points I pay attention to whenever I plan a party. But I’m so done
with planning 21st parties. I just want to hold a 22nd
birthday like Taylor Swift. Just kidding, that’s impossible. I realized I love
planning, but I hate it when things don’t go my way. (Bad trait I picked it up
from my ex-boyfriend)

Anyways,
back to Donovan’s 21st birthday. It was super tedious to plan
because everyone was so busy. XT works in entertainment industry, which makes
her getting a weekend off difficult. Brendon is serving the nation, which makes
him available during the weekends. Donovan is also serving the nation, which
means our party must be on a weekend.

A
few setbacks in this planning- nothing was done early. WP wanted to use a last
minute hotel booking app, which means we were unable to inform the guests the
venue until a day before the party. Hence we told her to book at her condo
function room first. Second issue, I received the guest list on the week of the
party itself. 4-5 days before the party. Third issue, guests issue. Guests were
VERY non-responsive.

Truth
to be told, I was very disappointed in Donovan’s friends. I invited all his
friends into a group chat to inform them about the party, most of them just
left without a word. Rude. How about ‘I’ll not be attending, but thank you for
the invitation’. People fail to see what most planners deal with. Shit. One of
them left and then decided to join the party in the end. Wow.

There
were another bunch of friends who read the messages and refused to reply.
People need to understand that we need you to respond so we are able to cater
food for the right number of guests.

Oh,
remember I mentioned to check with the guests if there are any food they are
unable to take? If it is not clear enough, I meant if anyone who are unable to
take beef, needs halal food, or is a vegan. One of his friends replied asking
for a ‘low-fat’ meal. Excuse me, but you are invited to a party. A party is
usually filled with junk food, snacks and pizzas. FYI- the guest ate the most
pizza that night. Well done sir. I’m totally okay with it, because the whole
night I was filled with sarcasm. I asked if he had his own dinner because we
were ordering pizza, and I also told him we made some healthy dips for chips,
customized just for him. My friends were shocked that I just told him off like
that. But I guess his friends thought it was quite a funny joke. Joke’s on you
mister. I cannot stand people around my age at times.

Anyways,
the party went well. I did my job of informing the guests. I guess most of the
crises came from the guests. People issues are the hardest to deal with, but
there wouldn’t be a party if there weren’t people.

The cupcakes above was done by a friend of mine, Monice. Do check her Instagram out, @Monicebakes. She baked some cookies for me as well, and they were very lovely!

Hello
beauty lovers! I was invited by Engel to Soteria Hair Salon, along with other
bloggers for a hair treatment. Soteria is not just a hair salon, but also a
face and nail salon.Soteria
is an award winning company who won Singapore Brand Award, Asia Pacific Brand
Award, SME Asia Award, Queen Of Substance Award. The place was very pretty and
well-established. Soteria Face & Nail Salon is slightly bigger compared to
their Hair Salon, which is just next to their Face & Nail Salon. It looked
really pretty for a neighbourhood salon. Thanks Engel & Lynn for the
pampering session.

My
hair was taken care by Jerry, and he said a scalp treatment would do me well.
Personally I really love scalp treatment as I face quite a bad hair loss
problem, and I thank god I was born naturally with a lot of hair hence no one
thinks I have hair loss problem. ‘SP balance Scalp Treatment’ Jerry did for me
was around an hour long, including hair wash and massage. I love hair wash with
massages, and the massage lasted around 3-4 minutes long. I have went to salons
where they did not even massage my scalp. Like a typical scalp treatment, Jerry
applied the treatment on my scalp and proceed to steam it for a while.

Jerry
also did a temporary curl for me. He thought I might find it ‘aunty’. He said a
lot youngsters feel curls make them look old. Well, it is definitely not me. I
love curls. Surprisingly the curls Jerry did for me lasted for 1 day. I
remembered the times where my curls only lasted for a few hours. I guess it was
because I damaged my hair a while back when I perm my hair, which was promised
to last 4-5 weeks, but only lasted 4 days. Nonetheless, I was glad my curls
lasted for a day straight.

We
were invited to try some treats from Stay Home Mom Café. I like their
personalized macaroons, especially the vanilla ones. It wasn’t too sweet, which
is something I love. We even get to try to make a personalized candle as well.

Overall,
I think Soteria Hair Salon scored above average for a neighbourhood salon, with
the location easy to find. It is about 8-min walk from Kovan MRT, which was not
too bad in my opinion. The scalp treatment I did cost SGD$160, however they are
having a SG50 package, which costs SGD$500 for 10 sessions. That means $50/
session, which is obviously very worth it.